MR. CURTIS AT SUBURBAN NORTH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 263, 1 November 1873, Page 1

MR. CURTIS AT SUBURBAN NORTH.

Mr Curtis met the electors at the Hillside Z. Schoolroom at Snburban North last night. There fe ' was a fair muster, bnt not so large as Wouid have K beerithe case had a longer notice been' given. H Ori the motion of Mr Wells, the chair was taken K: by Mr Mackay, who in a few words introduced *? - Mr Curtis, who said .'that as that was the 'first portion of the constituency he had met, he hoped they would allow him to address them as repress senting the whole province, of the present condi- * tioii of which he wished to say. a few word?, and i also to suggest what would be best to be dons for £ the future .At present it waa riot in a very '<. prosperous condition, and certainly was not to >. be compare^ in this respect with the larger provinces of Otago and Canterbury, but was it owing to the respective Governments that this difference existed, or was their greater prosperity owing to their greater natural advantages? It might be said that our resources were equal to theirs, and he believed* that they were so, but they were of a totally different character, ours being more eoncealed, more difficult to get at, and requiring far more capital and labor to bring them to the surface.' The process of developing a mineral country waa very different to that of turning to account rich agricultural lands. In the latter it waa merely to pnt the plough into the ground, and it at once became productive. He had been at Canterbury lately, and great as was the progress that had there been made, he was only surprised that it was not far greater. The chief part of the land for hundreds of miles) was covered with grass, and free from bush, and ready to be cultivated at once. Here we had very little of this description of land, with the exception of the Amuri,.which unfortunately had been disposed of years ago. * Most of our ajgricultural lands were covered— with timber, and required much labor and a considerable amount of capital to be expended upon.them before they yielded any return. But on the oilier band* we had our minerals, and to these must we look for our prosperity. Canterbury and Otago had enormous revenues • raised almost entirely from the sale of land. Here we had little or no land revenue, one reaaon^ being that the amount of land waa very limited, another that there were no means of communication, and another that we had a Leasing Act which prevented the sale of land, but made liberal provisions for its being settled. There had of late years been a considerable falling offrin the -revenue which was to be accounted for, first, because there was no land to sell, and secondly because the goldfields were in a declining state, This was a phase through which all goldfields had to pass sooner or later. At first there was a large amount of alluvial diggings, providing remunerative employment for a large number of men,' and consequently affording a large revenue, thai the deposits more easily got at became gradually less, and a certain amount Of depression ensued. That had been the case here. Tlie most easily obtained gold uad been worked oint, and permanent mining had scarcely yet been fully established, thongh there could be no doubt tbat it would be so iu tho course of another year or two, and then we might again look for a- larger population. Another reason for the decline of the revenue was tbe alteration in the contribution of the General Government .to the provincial funds. Some years ago the provmoes got three-eighths of the Customs duties, but that was stopped, and ihe allowance had been gradually decreasing; until now ' it was very small compared with what it was a few years since. Li 1868, during his first year as Superintendent, the amount received from the General Government waa £45;750; this year it was only £12,530, exhibiting a falling-off of £33,220. They should' consider the; immense effect this m rirtbave upon the public works of the province but it was not sufficiently taken into account' when the falling-off- in the revenue was referred to, that thejro vince bad no power in the matter, but was entirely dependent upon the will of the General .Assembly. * The question waß, what was the proper course to be taken ? The only way he . could- see was to raise* aloan for pablic works.: For tho last five years ' this had,, been impossible, as the Assembly had larways* steadily set its face against the renewal of a system which threatened at one time to involve the whole colony in difficulties, the only province that, had been allowed to borrow being Wellington, which had got into such a financial mess that for its own credit the colony had to stepin and render assistance. Now, however there wjw likely to he an opportunity of raising a provinciat loan. Last session, finding that there was. such a probability, he had introduced a WII for raising; £100,000 for public works, a portion of .which he had proposed to devote to the important work of opening up the Rai Valley He had felt that there was considerable difficulty fn Tthe ".matter,, as he Was of opitiiou that the Provincial: Council should, first decide whether euch a liability ought to be incrured, fix the amount' to be raised, and define the works to be undertaken, but there had been no time for this, and therefore he had taken upon himself to introdhce flie bill, the fate bf which, together with that of similar measures from the other provinces, tbey all!, knew. However, it was likely that in the next session such bills would be more successfnl, pud he proposed, if re-elected, to call the Council together for the purpose of deciding upon the desirability of borrowing, and the direction, in which the money, should be spent. He alio proposed to have an entire reconstruction «f tJfe,s?esutive Council. For some time past if bsid been found that the members of the Bxecptive.were not able to hold their own in the Conncil, arid that a change was necessary. He could riot then 'indicate what the exact change frotdd*be; or 1 who would be on thenew Executive, ai' ihe ! memberß;of Council were not yet elected but he proposed to appoint gentlemen possessing the confidence, of the Council, so that that body and tlie 1 Government would be able to work har-moiiionaly-together. He did not believe a responsible Executive wonld work well in a small province, nor did he think that it was in accordance -with the -Constitution, as the Superintendent, who was "elected by the people as their head, Was by such a measure divested Gf his responsibility to the .people. He hoped, however, to be able to surround himself with an Executive which would work in accord with the Conncil by appointing upon it those who had its full con- *"" (MrtUurtis then referred in terms simiJar to those used by him at the late meeting in JJelsoa to-tbe railway question.) There was one point on which he had been found fault with, and with regard to wnich he would say a few words. He had been blamed for accepting tenders for pnblic works when .y^. the amount was less tlian the Provincial Engi--2- Beer's estimate, but such a course had as a rule T attended; with great advantage^ even al- "~- ttofo^ther^fcadbeen cases in which the contracts fcaffbeen thrown,-^. - Lately in theßuller

j such au instance had occurred, and it had been much talked about, but it should be remembered that whenever a contractor failed to carry out his engagement everyone heard of it, but nothing was said of those that were executed, though they had heen taken at a price below the estimate. It was.also urged that 'proper securities should always be taken, but the effect of that would be that only large contractors with capital or friends io back theni up could undertake the works, and many would be shut out who were quite as capable of executing them, while the uumber of tenderers would of course be considerably lessened." The building of thc Nelson. Hospital wa3 an instance where the contract was near'y £600 less than that estimated by Mr Elackett, and yet the work had been well done, and that amount saved to the province. He should always continue to pursue the same course except where it was known that the tenderer could not possibly perform his engagement. He was constantly being attacked in letters and newspaper articles upon one subject or another, but one of the most recent instances was one which had afforded him considerable amusement. It "was a speech made by Mr Grove at the Buller, of which the following was the report in the Colonist: — "Mr Grove next referred to the evil of the family connections that existed in Nelson between many persons who drew their incomes from the public purse. He blamed the Nelsou papers ior not calling attention to this evil, adn remarked how much more agreeable it would be to himself if it were possible to point out such public errors and wrongs without referring to individual cases. One thing, however, was quite certain, and that was that the public were far more to blame than those happy families, one of which, consisting of three brothers, three bro-thers-in-law, and a nephew to one of the brothers-in-law, drew altogether in round numbers £1400 per annum from the public purse. Mr Grove said he thought it only right and just that the residents in the interior should be informed of these things, as they had not the same means as those who lived nearer Nelson had of informing themselves of these things. Mr Grove concluded his remarks - on Government officials and billets as follows : "If it must necessarily be a part of our system of Government that our Superintendent shall have the privilege of finding incomes for his friends and supporters, altogether regardless of their fitness or otherwise for the public service, let there be a Superintendent Pets' Asylum, where they sball be clothed and fed, and all their wants handsomely satisfied, but don't on any account permit them to meddle with thc public bnsiness of the province. Let tbem pay efficient men for this, and have Engineers that were Engineers, and send pretenders to this Asylum, where, although the public would be saddled with the expense of keeping, they would be freed from the botching and bungling and experimentalising which now takes place, at the possible expense of spoiling every public work they had to do with" These numerous relations spokeu of puzzled him considerably, and he had been at a loss to discover who they were that were referred to, until after many enquiries he found that it was a family who were well known and much respected in that district, namely, the Hodgsons. but it bo happened that two only were in the Government employ, one being Mr George Hodgson; who had not been appointed by him, though he should be exceedingly glad to be able to clsim the credit of having made such an appointment, for a better officer there could not possibly be, and the other was Mr Newton, who received a small salary as Assistant Inspector of Sheep. (Mr Curtis then caused some amusement by referring to the " family, party " one by one, us he showed how they received their appointments from the Provincial Council, Central Board of Education, or Local Committees.) That was the kind cf thing that was constantly being said, but which proved on examination to be entirely without foundation. He now wished to refer to the only opponent tliat, as iar as he knew, wae likely to offer himself for election. He would say a few words about Mr O'Conor, as he did not know to what extent they might be acquainted with his political career, He was a strong advocate of the rights and privileges of the residents on the goldfields, and in that he was perfectly right, as he was their representative, bnt *he was too much disposed to entirely ignore the settled districts. Any measure concerning them scarcely ever met with his gupport; he never proposed any single thing for the benefit of the province generally, and certainly not for the settled districts separately. In 1871 he divided the Council against the Nelson and Foxhill railway, and was one of a small minority of five against it. In the General Assembly in the same year, there was great opposition to this line, and it was not until. the end of the Bession that the opposition was withdrawn, but even then Mr O'Conor was not satisfied, and divided the House against it, when the Ayes were 33 and the Noes 4, he being one of the latter. The following extract from Hansard would explain Mr O'Conor's opinion on this subject; ''Taking the Foxhill railway as the initial part of the through line from Nelson to Cobden, he desired to say that it formed part of a scheme the.mbst entirely Quixotic that could well be imagined, * * Indeed, if the Nelson and Cobden railway ever was made, he could not see where it was to get any trade, except a very limited, passenger trade, and something more res sembling^a parcels delivery than a goads traffic. Looking upon the Foxhill line by itself, he had only to remark that it was a railway from the town of Nelson to the hiil, where there waa not even the semblance of a town, and it would run parallel to one of the best roads in the. colony, where freight by dray was taken at so low a rate that the railway traffic at tho ordinary rate would be in excess of tbe present charge. The railway woald open up no new country and the products of the country which the line would run through were eggs, poultry, and cheese, and a few spring carts were sufficient to collect these." **.*** Mr White, also a goldfields member, was more reasonable, and supported the railway, and it might be well for them to know what he thought of Mr O'Conor's opposition. Hansard reports:— "Mr Wbite * '* He thought that the honorable member for the Buller took a somewhat jaundiced view of the matter. He was | afflcted with a strong . dislike for everything Nelsonian, and that feeling crept out in everv sentence he uttered." * * That was also his (Mr Cnrtis's) experience of Mr O'Conor in the General Assembly. He felt that he was laboring under an undue disadvantage, as hia opponent had not yet issued any address* and all that he knew of his views was from the imperfect reports of his speeches in other parts of the province. He found there that, like himself, he was in favor of a loan for

public works, and he also found that he was making reference to the parasites and barnacles* hanging about the Provincial Government, and that he was going to remove them. We were all pretty well accustomed to that kind of talk and knew what it meant. It was the invariable custom for dissatisfied people to talk so, and it was invariably found that they did not do what they said they would. In this province the number of officer's, was reduced to the lowest possible number, and he did not think that even Mr O'Conor could make it lower. He might believe so now, but it ever in office he would find it quite a different matter. He (Mr Curtis) had made reductions whenever he possibly could, and by tlie resignation of , Mr Shephard last year had been able to make an additional saving of £300 a year by amalgamating the offices of Secretary and Treasurer, and whenever any similar opportunity offered he should do so again, but as for a general scrimmage in the direction of reducing the number of officers, that was impossible. With regard to the character of the public officers, the Superin tendent was very properly responsible for that, and whenever any of them were found to be unfit for their- work it was his business to remove them. Anotherthinghe believed MrO'Conor had promised to do, namely, to reconcile the different parts of the province. Probably, as a loeal candidate, he would secure a majority of the gotes on the West Coast, though it was doubtful whether he possessed a large share of their confidence. But, supposing' him to be elected, after he had been in office a short time a very different state of things would exist, and complaints would fast arise from this side, which ere long would be calling out ;for separation; and if he succeeded in carrying out what he had said both in the Assembly and the Council, the sooner separation took place the better. Not/ only did he want to obtain the whole of the golds fields revenue, but he wanted to take the reven/e from this side as well for expenditure there. /If Mr. O'Conor was elected it would soon be fouhd that the unity he proposed to be able to seciSe was altogether visionary. With reference tcK immigration, he had occasionally been blamed because he had not found himself able to recommend much to this province. Some, too, were blaming him on another ground, that people were leaving the province. If it were the case that laborers were leaving,what occasion was there . to provide more? None were more anxious than himself to see the population increasing, but he would not be a party to introducing men when there was no employment for them. If we entered upon large public works, then he would certainly endeavor to secure a steady stream of useful immigrants. The system of nomination he approved of, as it was not likely that people here would send for their friends unless they felt sure they would find work on arrival. He was glad to find that a liberal scheme had beeu devised by the Government, whereby residents here might get their friends out free of all cost. To return to Mr O'Conor's political proceedings and opinions. They ought to be made aware that last year he had prepared and supported a Bill providing for partial separation of the West Coast, which proposed that a Goldfields Board was to have the whole of the goldfields revenue placed at- their disposal, while at the same time they were to send members to the Provincial Council to take part in appropriating the revenue of this side. He would remind them that the number of electors on each side were now about the the same, 2000, in each. Mr O'Conor would no doubt obtain a niajority on the Coast, as it was of the greatest importance that every elector here should record his vote, for upon this the result would depend. They might depend upon it that great activity would be displayed there, and if that were met with apathy here the result might be that Mr O'Conor would poll a majority. He had now touched upon most subjects of. importance and would be glad to receive any suggestions or reply to any questions. Mr Wastney : Do you think that a Superintendent should take an active part in superintending the public works, and' should visit annuallv the more important districts to see that the works were going on properly, or should he trust entirely to his officers ? Mr Curtis : Tp some extent he should, but as the session of the' Councilland A Rsembly, andthe time required for preparing for the former, occupy nearly six months, andthereare necessary visits to Wellington and: the goldfields^thefre is little time left for going to the other part?. Beside**, Ido ' not profess to be able to jndge of the character of the work so well an those whose life has been spent in studying that kind of thing, and therefore I never have pretended to superintend the public works. A halfrengineer,*l consider, wonld'make a most mischievous Superintendent, as he might be disposed to interfere with those who knpw their work; far better than he could.! In Mr Dodson we have an excellent engineer, and I prefer to leave such matters to him. Mr Wastney : There is a cry from the West Coast that no roads have been made, and I think considering the large sums of money that have been spent there, it should not be in their power to make such a complaint. Though not an:engineer, I think the Superintendent should see to this Your Ust ieply leud** to the question whether the. Superintendent should be in the Assembly if provincial works are neglected by his attendance there. Mr Curtis : I consider it absolutely essential that the Superintendent should be in the House. It is necessary that he should be there to defend the interests of his province, for no one else can know them so well. The Superintendents of all the other provinces are there. With reference to the money spent on the Coast, and thecomplaint thet there are no roads, it is easy to raise such a/ cry, but we have made between SOO and 600 mildT of roads. Most of these, certainly, are horse tracks, but we have thought it better to open the country in this wav than to spend large sums in making coach roads in the neighborhood of the townß, a9 has been done in Westland, where there are nothing like the facilities for getting, about ihe country that exist in this province; The amount of money at 'our difiposal has not been very large, and considering the very high rates of wages that, have, occasionally hadto bo paid, l think much has been done. Mr Wastney : I gather from what you have sail that you propose to forget your past! opinion with reference to Provincial-borrowing; that yoh thought it better the General Government should borrow for Public Works, and that you voted against the Provincial Loans Bill, but have since changed your mind. Ia it so ? Mr Curtis: No. A bill was introduced to enable the provinces to borrow. I should have voted against it had it gone to a division, but it did not. I believe that the General Government should borrow at 4| per cent, j and lend the inoney to the provinces st the same rate rather thttn they should borrow at 6 per cent., and this i I

would support, but if the Assembly will nnt do this, I think it is better that we Bhould fall in with their plan and borrow at the highest rate rather than not have the money at all, Mr Wastney : I quite agree with you that we should do that rather than not get the money at all and come to grief over another consolidation of loait3 bs we did over the last. Mr Curtis : I fear you have fallca into a very common error. We did not suffer at all by the consolidation. We did not pay any share of the liabilities of tho'o'sher provinces. In 1868; the Government proposed to throw the whole interest npon the colony, nnd as Nelson had not borrowed to the same extent as the other provinces, to hand' over to her the sum of £90,000. * I made my calculations and objected unless we received £250,000. The Government, of which Stafford was the h o ad, refused, and went on with their measure, and in consequence I voted with Mr Fox on his no-confi<3ence m ction against them, a'though they were the party I usually supported. The vote was lost by the casting vote of the' Speaker, but it had the (fleet of inducing the Government to abandon the measure. No more questions being asked, Mr Dyson proposed, and another elector whose name we did not catch seconded a vote of thanks to Mr Curtis : ior his interesting address. Mr Wastney would cordially support the resolution, as he thought they were greatly indebted to Mr Curtis for his. clear and explicit; account of his past administration, and of his' intentions for the future. _ The vote was carried unanimously, as was a similar one to the chairman, and the meeting broke up. .

The Rev W_ M.Panshon recently preached in City Koad chapel, London, in aid of the bnilding fund of the Westminster chapeL . The collection exceeded £2,000. " Science and Scripture. — The apparent contradictions between the facts of modern science and the teachings of the Bible are supposed by some to invalidate tbe claima of the Scriptures to be an inspired communication. We pronounce this method of reasoning unfair. A spade is made for digging— -not for eating. A lancet is made for the vein — not for cutting down trees. You do not Bay that a book on cookery is of no value because it does not teach navigation, or book-keep-ing. Each of those things bas its particular use and value. The Bible was not designed to teach astronomy, or geology, or mathematics, any more than to instruct men in architecture or tailoring. The. great Apostle says, " Ail scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine," &c. The use of the Bible is a moral and religious one. Its special value is to teach men truth of transcendant importance—truth about their duty, their relations to God and the future, "that the man of God might be' throughly furnished onto all good works." Tben the Bible teaches pictorially rather than philosophically and scientifically. And rightly so, because those whom it addresses are. for the most plain, unlettered men, as the/ great bulk of humanity ever will be. Therefore its teaching must be simple m structure and if possible figurative in style and illustration. If the Bible had been scientifically and logically accurate/ it would probably have gratified the sAges of the world, but would have been a sealed book to the majority of its readers, If the Book of Joshua had spoken pf the earth pausing iu its revolution upAn its axis, when the Israelites fought with the five kings of the Amorites, would not sach a statement have beeu simply unintelligible ? How many persons, pven io the nineteenth century, would com-prehend it ? Do we cot yet speak of the^'rising" and the "setting" of the son ? And yet no ope wouid think of charging us with opposing modern science by using a convenient and mGral phrase instead of a scientific and technically accurate one. Hence the Bible is like a panoi ama, presenting a series of pictures exhibiting man's relations to God and his f sllow men in every conceivable circumatam se of life. Faith is illustrated in the history of Abraham and Moses. Love is t leiineated, not in an essay upon the emotions, but in the picture of John leaning on the bosom of Christ The sublime attribu «a of the Creator are not analysed in a t realise on mental science, but are discovert d in the life and sufferings and death of Jesus, or in tha lightning and thunder andlthe voice of tbe trumpet at Sainai. By a succession of pictures the Bible illustrates the operation of moral principle, and \in such an interesting and simple form that the mind of a child cannot fail to be\ captivated and instructed. We repeat, fore, that it is unfair to app.y scientific analysis to the Word of God, or to affirm that it is untrue because it does ootleach truth which lies outside its province. Sigma*, " N. Z. Wesleyan" A Home Training. —An invaluable lesson in the training of children ni given by Mrs Horace Mann, in the* anecdote of a bright little fellow in her school who had acquired a sad habit of sucking Ms thumb. She had observed that he grew thin through indulgence in this habit {and nce now know, what she did not, that it really causes toasting of the brain, and may lead to Idiocy). She says, " I had checked him many times, and he was good nbout it, bat the habit was too strong for him. One day I drew on a' little conversation about helping each other out of difficulties, which all agreed to ; and all professed themselves willing to be helped and to listen to warnings. I then said there was one in the school whom I wished to cure of a bad habit, and I had a plan for doing it, but its means mast depend upon whether he is willing, and upon whether the rest would be really friendly, and not laugh at him or tease him, but help him in every way they could. They were very desirous to know who and what (it was, and very Bure that they would do all that waa desired. I then spoke of little W— — , who was only six, or at most seven yeara old, and asked him if he was willing to let me tie that hand behind him, that he may be cured of sucking his thumb; for I knew of no other way. I told bim it would try his patience, for it was his right hand; and he would have to be dependent upon others for many things, and often would find it inconvenient aud annoying. After I had impressed him/ fully with the importance of the matter/ be consented, and the rest of the children promised to be attentive to his wants. I never tied the hand behind him till he put ihe thumb into his moutb; but it had- to be done every day for a fortnight. He bore it, and all the inconveniences, like a hero and not one child forgot to be considerate and helpful."

During the past week upwards of 500 immigrants arrived in Dunedin, and they were immediately absorbed, the demand far exceeding tho euppiy. Two new chum farm lßhorera from one of the vessels arrived in Lawrence this week seeking work, but being offered £60 p-r annum and found, promptly declined by saying " He be not going to work for that money." It would take fair wage to keep some of tha recently imported in beer, if we may judge from the manner in which they pour quart after quart down their capacious throats. They don't drink in colonial fashion; but a party of them sitting in a room or standing in a bar, order beer in a quart pot ond pass it round, all drinking out of the same measure till it is exhausted ; then they bave it replenished as long a3 tbeir money or credit lasts. If their ability for work is as good as ti**efr drinking capacity the public works of tho Province should make good progress.